Device for handling beers or other liquids requiring added and even pressure.



' PATENTED JULY 21, 1903.

I. SWINNEY. Y

DEVICE FOR HANDLING BEERS OR OTHER LIQUIDS REQUIRING ADDED h A \wwllll I! ww 4 /////////A 3w A w. N hm hm hm 9% //////////4 A W 1 vv 3 RR w F E v m .3 RV

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UNITED STATES T Iatented 2 1,

PATENT OFFICE.

DEVICE FOR HANDLING BEERS OR OTHER LIQUIDS REQUIRING ADDED AND EVEN PRESSURE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 734,145, dated July 21, 1903.

Application filed September 6, 1902- Serial No. 122,431- (No model.)

T at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK SWINNEY, a citizen of England, residing at Tucson, in the county of Pima, Territory of Arizona, have invented and discovered a new and useful Improvement in Devices for Handling Beers or other Liquids Requiring Added and Even Pressure; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable oth-' ers skilled in the art to which it 'appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements indevices for handling beers and other liquids requiring added and even pressure; and some second, improvised meanswhereby a definite.

and fixed pressure is evenly and constantly maintained upon the surface of a liquid while distribution thereof is being made; third, to maintain added and even pressure upon the surface of a fluid to be distributed by instalments until the fluid has been exhausted from the receptacle containing the same; fourth, to obtain accurately the desired amount of pressure to be added to the liquid to be dispensed, and, fifth, to arrange devices leading directly from the source of pressure to the re ceptacle'containing beer or other liquid to be distributed. I attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 isa View of devices, showing the cylinder in section, the piston, pipes, and adjusting devices 'in elevation. Fig.2 is a sectional View of the piston-head and piston-rod. Fig. 3 is a sectionaliview illustrating a portion of the cylinder, a portion of the piston-rod, and a portion of the pipes leading to and from the cylinder 5 and Fig. 4 is a view in elevation of the guide for the balance-lever.

Similar reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views.

The reference-numeral 'l'refers to the lower portion of the cylinder, a part of my device, and cast or otherwise made integral with the lower portion 1 is the upper portion 2 of the cylinder. The piston-rod 5 reciprocates vertically within the bore 4 of the solid portion 2 of the cylinder, and the piston-head 3 vertically reciprocates within the portion 1 of the cylinder. The bottom 7 of the cylinder is made of a separate piece, fastened in any suitable manner to the lower portion 1 of the cylinder by means of screws 8 8 or other suitable fastening devices. In the bottom 7 of the cylinder is a hole 9, preferably screwthreaded, in which to secure a pipe 46, hereinafter to be described.

a To the upper portion or solid portion 2 I secure a bracket 11 by means of screws 13 or other suitable devices, and in the upper and free end of said bracket 11 I pivot the balance-lever 15 by means of the fulcrumed pin 17. The balance-lever 15 rests upon a curved surface 18 within the open slot 19 in the upper end of the piston-rod 5. The lower end of the piston-rod is preferably made integral with the piston-head 3. The said piston-head 3 and rod 5 may, however, be made of separate parts fastened together in any desirable manner. The balance lever 15 is preferably rectangular in shape and may be raised or lowered in a slot 21 of the guide 23, the said guide 23 having a perforation '25 therein through which a screw 27 or other suitable device securely fastens the guide 23 to the upper solid portion 2 of the cylinder. Through the said slot 21 the free end of the balance-.

lever 15 may be raised or lowered, and near the margin of the slot 21 upon one or both faces of the guide 231 place a scale 20 in order to indicate the elevation of the balancelever. A balance-weight 29 is secured upon the balance-lever by means of a set-screw 31,

which securely holds the balance-weight upon the balance-lever at any desired point. I admit air through the perforation 28 in the wall of the cylinder in order to avoid back pressure upon the head of the piston. 4

The pipe 40 at the lower end thereof (shown broken away in the drawings) is connected with a storage-tank containing compressed suitable means with the solid portion 2 of the cylinder and registers with the passage-way or bore 35, which extends through the upper solid portion 2 of the cylinder, as hereinbefore stated. The said bore 35 is also made to register under certain conditions with the perforation 33 in the piston-rod 5 whenever the compressed air is turned on from the storage-tank and the balance-weight 29 has been properly adjusted upon the balance-lever 15, so as to counteract the pressure of the air in the said storage-tank, the wheel-valve 47 in pipe 40 being open and the wheel-valve 48 in pipe 42 being closed.

The pipe 42 at the opposite end of the passage-way or bore 35 of the solid portion 2 of the cylinder, like the pipe 40, is connected by means of screw-threads or other suitable devices to the solid portion 2 of the cylinder in line with the pipe 40 on the opposite side thereof. The pipe 42 extends horizontally a short distance from the cylinder, is curved, extending downward parallel with the cylinder portion 1 and parallel with the pipe 40, of which it is a counterpart. The lower end of the pipe 42 is connected with a distributer for the barrels (not shown upon the drawings) containing the beer or other liquid to be distributed at different intervals of time.

The pipes 40 and 42 are connected together below the bottom 7 of the cylinder by means of the pipe 43, composed of Ts 44, and by unions 45. By means of the T 46 the pipe 43 is connected to the bottom 7 of the cylinder and communicates therewith through the hole 9. In the pipe 43 I place the wheel-valve 47 and in the pipe 42 I place the wheelvalve 48.

In operating my improved device I connect the lower end of the pipe 42 (shown broken away) with a distributer for the barrels (not shown upon the drawings) containing the beer or other liquid to be dispensed. The air in the storage-tank when the valve 47 is turned on in the pipe 43 and the valve 48 in the pipe 42 is closed passes directly from the said storage-tank through a portion of the pipe 40 into the pipe 43, through the valve 47, through the pipe 46 into the lower portion of the cylinder by means of the hole 9 in the bottom 7 of the cylinder and under the piston-head 3. The piston head and rod ascend upward in the cylinder 1 and through the solid portion 2 thereof, respectively, until the perforation 33 in the piston-rod 5 registers with the pipes 40 and 42 and with the passage-way or here 35 in the upper or solid portion of the cylinder.

The wheel-valve 47 in the pipe 43 is now closed, and the wheel-valve 48 in the pipe 42 is slowly and gradually opened. As soon as thevalve 48 is opened the compressed air from the storage-tank (not shown) passes through the entire length of the pipe 40, through the bore 35 in the solid portion 2 of the cylinder, through the perforation 33 in the piston-rod 5, thence through the entire length of pipe 42, and down upon the liquid in the barrels containing the beer or other liquid to be distributed at variable intervals.

The operation of this invention will be readily understood from the foregoing description, taken in connection with the drawings hereto appended and the following explanation thereof.

With the piston-head 3 resting upon the bottom of the cylinder 7 and the counterweight 29 upon the balance-lever 15 near the guide 23 and the valve 48 closed the valve 47 is slightly opened, the compressed air, at a higher pressure than that desired to be exerted upon the surface of the beer or other liquid to be dispensed, passes directly from the compressed air reservoir (not shown) through the lower portion of the pipe 40, through pipe 43, through pipe 42 to the distributers for the barrels containing the beer or other liquid to be dispensed, until the desired pressurefor example, ten pounds-is obtained. This same amount of pressure (ten pounds) is at the same time exerted upon the under surface of the piston-head 3, which causes the piston-head and its rod to ascend, carrying the perforation 33 in the piston-rod 5 above the passage 35 in the solid portion 2 of the cylinder. The counterweight 29 is now moved toward or from the cylinder and guide 23 upon the balance-lever 15 as required until the perforation 33 in the piston-rod 5 is slightly above the passage 35 in the solid portion 2 of the cylinder, and this is indicated when the lower edge of the rectangular balance-lever 15 is in a horizontal posit-ion and registers with one of the numbers 20 of the scale on the guide 23. The valve 47 in pipe 43 is now closed, and the valve '48 in pipe 42 is opened. The slight reductions of pressure on the surface of the liquid as the liquid is first drawn oif will allow the piston and the rod to descend and cause the perforations 33 to exactly register with the passage 35, when the air will pass through the pipe 40, through the passage 35, and through the perforation 33 in the piston-rod 5. The counterweight 29 is now fixed by the thumb-screw 31 upon the balance-lever 5. The pressure on the two sides of the cylinder, in the pipes 40 and 42, is equal. The counterweight 29, being fixed upon the balance lever by means of the thumb-screw, the pressure in the compressedair tank (not shown) is sufficiently great to supply the space of liquid from time to time drawn 01f, will keep the balance-lever in its horizontal position.

It is obvious that many variations and changes in the details of construction and arrangement of my invention would readily suggest themselves to persons skilled in the art and still be within the spirit and scope of my invention.

I do not desire to confine this invention to the specific construction, combination, and arrangements of parts herein shown and described, and the right is reserved to make all changes in 'and'modifications of the same as come within the spirit of this invention; but I do desire to secure as my invention all features of construction and equivalents thereof that come within the scope of my improvement asherein shown and described, and illustrated upon the drawings appended hereto.

Having described my invention, what I do 4 claim,- and desire to secure by Letters Patcut, is

1. In a device for maintaining even and equal pressure upon the surface of a fluid being dispensed at varying intervals, a cylinder having a solid portion provided with a passage-way therein, a piston-rod, said rod carrying a head thereon and means for conveying compressed air to and from the device.

2. In a device for maintaining constant and equal pressure upon the surface of a liquid being dispensed at varying intervals of time and in unequal quantities until all the liquid contained in a receptacle is disposed of, a cylinder having a solid portion provided with a passage-way or bore therethrough, a pistonrod having a perforation therein and carrying a head thereon, and means for conveying compressed air' to the piston-head and to the surface of a liquid while being distributed.

3.-In a device for maintaining equal and constant pressure upon the surface'of a liquid being distributed at varying intervals, a piston-rod provided with a perforation therethrough, and carrying a piston-head thereon, a cylinder provided 'with a solidiportion having a passage-way or bore therethrough, said perforation and passage-way adapted to reg- .ister with each other, and means for conveying compressed air through said perforation tervals of time equal and constant pressure- .upon the surface of a liquid, distributed in Varying quantities, a cylinder having a solid portion provided with a perforation therethrough, a piston-rod carrying a piston-head thereon, said rod provided with a perforation therethrough, said perforations adapted to register with each other while the liquid contained in a receptacle is being drawn therefrom by instalments, and means for conducting compressed air to and upon the surface of the liquid being distributed.

5. In a device for maintaining equal and constant pressure upon the surface of a liquid being distributed in unequal quantities at varying intervals of time, a pressure apparatus having perforations therethrough adapted to register with each other, means for conveying compressed air to the said apparatus and to the surface of the liquid contained in a receptacle until all of said liquid has been distributed.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FREDERICK SWINNEY.

Witnesses:

JOHN H. MARTIN, R. V. LANGWORTHY. 

